T L 5131 - Reading & Writing Instruction PreK-3

The purpose of this course is to assist students in learning about early literacy development and practices. Students will learn how children become early readers and writers and how they develop and grow as readers and writers. The will learn the developmental process of reading and writing, and how culture and diversity affect those processes. They will also learn how teachers can facilitate the developmental process and enhance and enrich students' opportunities to learn how to read and write. Students will in particular learn these things through development of their own writing process development. Students will specifically learn about the alphabetic system and how to teach that system explicitly and directly to children. They will also learn developmental stages in spelling and how to assess children's progress in spelling stages. The major areas that will be covered in this early reading course relate to phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, spelling, writing and informal assessment for the purpose of improving instruction. Students will learn how to assess, teach and monitor growth in each of those areas. Further, each student will learn to accommodate a variety of learners through differentiated instruction.